


Shadows

by Mina Lightstar (ukefied)



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 22:12:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1565837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ukefied/pseuds/Mina%20Lightstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aerith believes the best men fall from the sky.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written/posted 2008, for Talya Firedancer's birthday. Original game canon, with flavoring from the compilation.

When a young Cloud Strife joins Shinra, everybody can figure out why SOLDIER Zack Fair takes a peculiar interest in him. Strife's hard, spiky hair belies the innocence and apprehensiveness anyone can see on the new recruit's soft features. He doesn't look like he could swing a sword if he had to, let alone pass for SOLDIER. The soft and shy are Zack's type -- or so everyone determines.

"Does he cry when you fuck him, Zack?" Lenny cracks at the bar one night.

"Or does he fuck  _you_?" someone chimes in. "Is that, like, your kink?"

"You guys are idiots," Zack observes, waving the topic aside. "Why are so interested in my ass, hmm?" This shuts them up.

Truth is, Zack  _is_  fucking Cloud -- but not for the reasons they think, and certainly not because Cloud is innocent or apprehensive.

 

***

 

Aerith complicates things.

Zack, wild and untamed stallion that he is, starts noticing this little pink flower girl in the streets. In the dank, dreary slums of Midgar, Aerith Gainsborough is a tiny speck of brilliant light.

He breaks the ice by dropping an empty barrel on some Turk's head.

"... Thank you," she utters, obviously taken aback. "But... aren't you both Shinra?" She's still poised to run, one foot ready to push off and knuckles white from the grip on her staff.

Zack shrugs, looking at the fallen flowers strewn about her feet. "He has no idea what hit him." He's wearing a hat, anyway.

"... Ah."

He looks up and gives her a grin. "Would you like me to walk you home?"

"No, thank you," she replies sweetly. "I should be fine now."

"Oh. Well," he adds, gesturing to the ground, "let me at least pay for those flowers."

 

***

 

When the rumors start circulating, Cloud stops daydreaming and starts paying attention to what the braggarts in SOLDIER have to gossip about. Zack Fair has a girlfriend, and has been shoving her picture into everyone's faces all morning. She's very pretty, they have no idea what she's doing with a loser like him.

Cloud sniggers to himself, unsure if he's supposed to be upset. He and Zack are friends, nothing more -- and they haven't really been... together much, anyway. It would be kind of pathetic to act like a scorned lover at this point.

Eventually, he decides it was a phase best forgotten.

 

***

 

_"Best forgotten?!"_  Zack exclaims, clearly not taking it as well as Cloud had. "That's it? That's all you can say?" The picture he'd been holding out is crumpled in an angry fist.

Cloud winces at his friend's rising volume. Cloud's quarters do not have the thickest of walls. "Keep your voice down. It's none of anyone else's business."

Zack actually throws the tiny, jagged ball at him, for some reason. Cloud catches it, stares at it, and eventually restores it to some semblance of glory. "Is this your girlfriend?" Brown hair, green eyes, very pretty. "She's really pretty."

"Yeah," Zack agrees, and at length comes to sit down beside him. A battle has been fought, Cloud thinks. Something has changed between them, but not necessarily for the worst. "I really like her."

 

***

 

Cloud meets Aerith Gainsborough under unusual circumstances. With an aching skull and swimming vision, he looks up at this concerned angel of mercy and thinks,  _Oh, she's still pretty._

It's an irrational thought, though, because he doesn't remember ever seeing her be--no, wait, he has: He bumped into her after that job with AVALANCHE.

 

***

 

Aerith now believes that all the best men come from the sky. She believes something else, too, when her new bodyguard turns out to be SOLDIER First Class and carry the Buster Sword.

_Zack...._  She pulls her knees closer to her chest.

Cloud looks up. "You were... serious?"

She's had practice; the lump in her throat can be conquered and there are no tears. But she cannot stop the memories: The laughter and the charm and the sword-callused hands. "No," she finally replies. "But I liked him for a while."

 

+fin+


End file.
